Across Americas

Updated: 2013-02-08 14:26

(China Daily)

Chen Naiqing (right), a former Chinese ambassador to Norway, and her husband, Ambassador to the United States Zhang Yesui (second from right), watch models clad in traditional Chinese dress walking the runway at the Meridian International Center on Jan 31. The show, Style in Silk: Tradition and Innovation in Chinese Fashion, was part of a celebration of the upcoming Chinese New Year. Washington

Ringing in

Sun Guoxiang, China's consul general in New York, is joined by David Wicks, vice-president at Nasdaq OMX Group Inc, in ringing the opening bell on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange on Feb 6. Wicks also presented Sun with a crystal ball. New York

Holiday start

About 300 guests attended a Feb 6 reception hosted by the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office to welcome the Year of the Snake. The event was also a farewell for Jeff Leung as the local HKETO director and a welcome for his successor, Subrina Chow. From left: Song Ru'an, China's deputy consul in San Francisco; Donald Tong, Hong Kong's economic and trade commissioner in the US; and Leung. San Francisco

Noteworthy night

The China National Symphony Orchestra performs at the Music Center at Strathmore on Feb 1. The Beijing-based orchestra played the following night, Feb 2, at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. North Bethesda, Maryland

In harmony

ChinaSF, an initiative of the city government, in conjunction with the San Francisco Center for Economic Development, hosts the US premiere of Shanghai Calling, a feature movie produced by Hollywood veteran Janet Yang. From left: Yang; Skip Whitney, executive vice-president of real estate firm Kidder Mathews; and China SF Executive Director Darlene Chiu Bryant. San Francisco

Keeping tradition

Dignitaries dot the lion's eye - a Lunar New Year tradition - at the Hong Kong-Canada Business Association Chinese New Year Ball on Feb 2. From left: Ross Cronin, eastern Canada general manager for Cathay Pacific Airways; Gloria Lo, director of the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in Toronto; Tina Sarellas, regional vice-president, Royal Bank of Canada; and Fang Li, the Chinese consul in Toronto. Markham, Ontario

Hands on

Children prepare for the Lunar New Year by making holiday-themed crafts at the Museum of Chinese in America on Feb 2. The young artists' work was in part a promotion for the US Postal Service, which is issuing a Lunar New Year stamp featuring firecrackers, paper-cut designs and Chinese calligraphy. The Year of the Snake, which begins Sunday, is the sixth of 12 stamps in the USPS' Celebrating Lunar New Year series. The series will conclude in 2019. New York

Strings on campus

Shirley Wang plays a new version of a Chinese musical piece on the zheng, a harp-like instrument, with Andrew Bushnell, first violinist with the Northwest Symphony Orchestra, at a Lunar New Year concert hosted by the University of Washington's Chinese Scholars Association on Feb 3. Seattle

The Highest Honor

The Investiture Ceremony of 25 Appointees named to Ontario’s highest honour - the Order of Ontario - is conducted on February 6 at Queen’s Park. The appointees were chosen for their contributions to the arts, law, science, medicine, history, politics, philanthropy and the environment. World renowned film director Deepa Mehta, lung transplant innovator Dr. Shaf Keshavjee, and celebrated actor and tenor Michael Burgess, are among 25 extraordinary Ontarians appointed to the Order of Ontario. In the picture, Michael Chan, Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, delivers his greetings to the appointees. Li Na/China Daily, Toronto